Quick Search

In This Feature

Steve Coogan

December 03, 2007

by
findingDulcinea Staff

The fiery British comedian, known for his role as the caustic, eccentric radio presenter Alan Partridge in the BBC series, I'm Alan Partridge, has made recent forays into Hollywood films and cable television that outdo many of his fellow countrymen and introduce him to a new American audience.

Steve Coogan began as an impersonator and stand-up comedian in England and Scotland and has risen to the top of his field playing eccentric and downright ridiculous British characters that draw on the legacy of troupes like Monty Python, and also manage to transcend their British audience in much the same way Ricky Gervais’s The Office did at the beginning of this decade.

Coogan’s Run is a well-orchestrated fan site that features pictures, video clips, a biography, and perhaps most interestingly, interviews with the comic master from sources like the BBC, the home turf for many of Coogan’s productions.

Baby Cow Productions was founded in 1999 by Coogan and his frequent writing partner Henry Normal. Learn more about the pair’s work, watch clips of the shows and films, and get external links to buy the material, and read reviews of the company’s productions. The site has an engaging design with lots of graphics, animation, and fun multi-media.

Coogan’s latest role is the lead in the BBC comedy series Saxondale, in which he plays the befuddled, aggressive, pot-bellied, ex-roadie Tommy Saxondale. Watch a clip of an early episode of the show on YouTube.

You’ll find a profile of Coogan and dozens of other comedians at the BBC Comedy sub-site. It’s a rudimentary reference but provides links to many clips of I’m Alan Partridge and other earlier Coogan shows like Knowing Me, Knowing You, where Coogan played a talk show host, first on radio, then on television.

Steve Coogan has always been in the tabloids in England for his romantic diversions, but he made the American press when the singer Courtney Love blamed Coogan for the attempted suicide by his good friend OwenWilson. Love claimed that Coogan offered drugs to a vulnerable Wilson. Coogan later denied the claims on the show Access Hollywood. Read more about the alleged scandal from Comedy Central’s blog, The Insider.

In 2002, Coogan starred in 24-Hour Party People, a production that spoofs the music-documentary genre. A cult classic in Britain and the U.S., the film, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, sheds light on the 1980s Manchester punk scene populated by Joy Division and other seminal bands. Watch a trailer from the site My Movies.

In a BBC interview that year Coogan discussed the Manchester party scene, something which he admits that he “missed,” and was able to get a taste of it only by starring as a band manager in the film.